Many people have a special fondness for the pickup truck, as it provides a unique combination of function, versatility, comfort, and style. The pickup truck enables a user to transport articles having a wide variety of sizes and weights. One disadvantage associated with transporting items in the load carrying portion of the pickup truck is that the items are vulnerable to damage, theft, or loss due to the open and unsecured nature of the pickup truck bed. One solution to this problem is to utilize hard top camper shells or tonneau bed covers, which mounts to the upper rails of the pickup bed. While there are various types of shells available, these shells typically cover the entire cargo area and are only large enough to cover and protect items that would fit within the confines of the pickup truck bed outer perimeter. If larger items need to be transported the camper shell must be removed, which leads to difficulty in storage and the effort of reattaching after transportation of the oversized items. Additionally, camper shells and bed covers do not provide any means to support additional cargo due to their typically flimsy construction and lightweight materials.
Various attempts have been made to overcome these restrictions and provide oversized shells or covers having pneumatic cylinders that enable portions of the cover to expand and retract as needed. While these attempts attempt to eliminate the need to remove the cover for some applications, they still restrict the hauling versatility provided by an open truck bed. Examples of such attempts can be seen through reference to several U.S. Patents, including: U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,855; U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,362; U.S. Pat. No. 7,243,965; U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,839; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,594.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,855, issued in the name of Moraysky, describes a vehicle bed cover assembly having a frame member and a series of frame panels. U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,362, issued in the name of Mendez, describes a camper shell for a vehicle having foldable sections which can expand and retract upon a base channel unit. U.S. Pat. No. 7,243,965, issued in the name of King et al., describes a convertible camper shell and hard tonneau which can be raised and lowered between a camper shell and a bed cover.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffers from one or more of the aforementioned disadvantages or deficiencies. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means to cover the cargo area of a pickup truck without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.